


Fear in a Handful of Dust

by merryghoul



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst and Humor, Gen, Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-22
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-08-12 16:50:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7941883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>River saves the Master, only to hear about his latest plans for conquest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear in a Handful of Dust

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dancingsalome](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dancingsalome/gifts).



> Title and idea taken from "The Burial of the Dead" from T.S. Eliot's _The Waste Land._

River saw him as she was exploring Laterus V. The Master. River recognized his face; it was the first Master she had spotted on Earth. The Master's legs were sinking into quicksand. He tried to grab drier land around him in an attempt to pull himself up. He kept grabbing dust. And he actually looked like he was afraid to die. 

River ran to the Master. She grabbed his hands and started pulling him out of the quicksand. It took her a while to free the Master. But River had no trouble dragging the Master out to stable, dry land.

 

“I am the Master. Are you a Time Lady?” the Master asked River on dry land.

“It's complicated.” 

“Whoever and whatever you are, I can reward you handsomely. If you can get me to my TARDIS so I can recover, I may have a deal for you.”

“What does your TARDIS look like?” 

“The way it looked when I stole it from Gallifrey. It's a Type 45. Do you know what a Type 45 TARDIS looks like?”

“I do. Now point me in the direction of where your Type 45 TARDIS is.”

The Master pointed towards his TARDIS. “It's somewhere over there.”

 

“Now I tried to recruit the Onnid to take over Earth,” the Master said to River in his console room. “But you strike me as more intelligent than the Onnid. I say the two of us should team up and round up every Onnid on Laterus V. We'll march them into my TARDIS and drag them to Earth. What do you say, Archaeologist?”

“I think not.” River gave the Master a peck on his lips with hallucinogenic lipstick. 

River left the Master's TARDIS by vortex manipulator as he modified his plans of conquering Laterus V for the Archaeologist.


End file.
